Socialite settlers: How sex, drugs and crime thrived in colony

The arrival of the white settler in Kenya in the late 19th Century ignited an interest that saw the number of settlers increase from less than 1,000 at the turn of the century, to more than 60,000 by the 1950s.

Among this large group were the socialites — individuals whose legacy was one of polo fields, luxurious safaris, horsey set, clubs, sex, drugs, drug-related crime and all manner of debauchery.

Muthaiga Club was the favourite party spot for the “Tatler Group…the Edwardian troublemakers…”

Most of them were aristocratic black sheep, second sons with little chance of succeeding to the title, but with enough family wealth to hobnob with the rich and mighty.

Perhaps no group captures the imagination, and rightly so, of the socialite settler, like the Happy Valley set, the legendary Wanjohi Valley group.

No other single group offers such a composite view of the impact of sex, drugs, and crime in the young colony.

ALWAYS IN TROUBLE

Lord Errol, the “leader” of the Happy Valley set, was the ultimate Don Juan, irresistible to females, especially married ones, and always getting into trouble for it.

Idina Sackville, his first wife, was eight years his senior and had been previously married to Euan Wallace, whom she had divorced for the Playboy Earl of Errol.

She and Errol set up an estate known as Clouds, where many of the activities for which the Happy Valley set is now famous were centred.

It was the ultimate party estate, complete with horse stables, expansive gardens, a polo field and tennis courts.

In 1929, Errol was famously horsewhipped at Nairobi Railway Station by Ramsay-Hill because of his affair with the latter’s wife, Molly.

Errol married her the next year. Molly died in 1939 from a drug binge of heroin, morphine and alcohol gone wrong.

The next year, Errol met Lady Diana Delves Broughton, the wife of Sir Jock Broughton.

MURDER

The resulting love triangle, which later included Alice de Janze, is thought to have been the motive behind his murder two years later.

It was at Jock’s trial for and acquittal of the murder that the details of the Wanjohi Valley set became common knowledge.

In England, the question became “are you married or do you live in Kenya?”

The Lady Diana at the centre of the love triangle was the same woman who later married the 4th Baron Delamere, and their combined fortunes made her the unchallenged “White Queen of Africa”.

Hugh Cholmondeley, the 3rd Baron Delamere, had been a member of the Wanjohi Valley set too.

The socialite scene was one of drugs, mainly cocaine, heroin, morphine, and alcohol.

Alice de Janze, the woman with a tragic life story, who was deported from Kenya in 1928, was depressive and addicted to alcohol and morphine.

Her favourite drink was absinthe-spiked vodka cocktails, while her playmates drunk other spirits – pink gins, soda, brandy, bronxes, and John Collinses.

DRUGS

Kiki Preston, “the girl with the silver syringe,” was famously known as the woman who introduced a member of the royal family to intravenous drug use.

Her nickname came from her habit of injecting herself publicly, even between courses at the dinner table.

She would have a new supply of drugs flown in via an airstrip on the front lawn of Errol’s home in Wanjohi Valley.

Kiki was the best customer of the unofficial drug lord of the colony, Frank Greswolde Williams, a fabulously rich spendthrift man described as an odd fit to the group.

His involvement seems almost misplaced because he had the “…manners of a stable boy…and his daughters were ‘rum uns’ and illiterate.”

Williams had settled in the Kedong Valley. He ran a lucrative drug business besides his farming and other investments.

With such a large customer base and himself somewhat a socialite, he supplied drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

Although most anecdotes are unclear, it is thought that it was Williams who was thrown out of Muthaiga Club after he offered cocaine to Prince Edward, the Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the throne for his American love.

Leone Cav. Glaton-Fenzi, founder of the Royal East African Automobile Association (1919) was the first man to drive from Nairobi to Mombasa in 1926, accompanied by Captain Gethin in a Riley 12/50.

COMMEMORATED

This feat is commemorated on a monument on Kenyatta Avenue. He was a prominent member of the group.

The road from Nairobi to Naivasha was then a deeply rutted red earth truck.

However, several members of the set, such as John Carbery and his wife Bubbles (Maia), were pilots.

Bubbles was the first person to fly from Mombasa to Nairobi. She later died when an aircraft nose-dived to the ground.

A flight from Nairobi to Naivasha would take roughly an hour, allowing people to move to and from the city to private estates for parties and supplies.

Yet the Happy Valley set only covered part of the story.

HB Sharpe was a known homosexual and an eccentric administrator. He was transferred a lot, more for his indiscretions than his successes as an administrator.

Characteristically, he used prison labour to create beautiful gardens, and to build two lavatories at his station in Garissa.

The two lavatories were named “Haraka and Baraka” after the proverb “Haraka Haraka haina Baraka.” Haraka was nearer to the house, while Baraka was further away and was in essence a small open bachelor pad with a view of the Tana River and a table full of magazines.